Adelheid listened attentively to what her sister had to tell her, coming to the conclusion that she always had something important to say. Her ears flicked once and she looked back down at the water rushing over her hooves. Careful not to fall, she spread her spindle-like legs and dropped her head to the ripples, holding her breath to make sure she would not scare away the spirits. All her focus was on the stream, she opened her mouth, about to swear she heard it laughing from under the polished stones. When Jetta proclaimed they must of been sleeping, the filly’s blue eyes filled with disappointment. She must have been wrong. “I think they were just teasing.” She muttered under her breath as she straightened up. Senses flicked back to her sister as if she had not voiced her different opinion just in time for the splashes of water soak her. Gleefully, Adelheid lifted her hooves into the air and splashed around as hard as she could. What she could not match her sister in the intensity of the waves she could make up for in the number of small splashes sprayed around her sister. True, the splashes only came up to the yearling’s shoulders, but occasionally Adelheid kicked out with her hind hooves to send the droplets to her sibling’s face.

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Once again she had eluded them! It was not as though Taytim kept an over protective eye over her daughter, it was just that their mutual craving for adventure was overwhelming for the small filly. Today it was her new found friend, a small snake, that had convinced Taika to go tearing away from her mother’s side.

“Wait! Come back!” The filly called after the terrified reptile after she spooked it from sunbathing. She dashed after it, soon following wind created ripples in the grass instead of the serpentine trail. It did not take long for her to completely forget that she had been following a snake at all, and was simply enjoying prancing across the foothills of the peak, with her mother trotting leisurely behind her.

As little Taika approached the stream and she heard the laughter of the other fillies she picked up her pace into a full foal gallop. Seeing that her daughter was about to go colliding into what would undoubtedly be a flurry of legs the young mother raced forward to cut off the over excited filly, using her nose to gently reroute her and slow her before impact.

“You should probably ask before you go jumping right into their water fight.” Taytim advised her daughter. “Maybe they are shy, and you need to respect that.”

“But mom! They are my size! They look like me!” Which was not entirely true. Even at a week old it was obvious that Adelheid would very soon tower over the two month old filly. The splattering of white and gray flecks that had started to spread over the filly’s face, up her legs, and into her growing mane was a stark contrast to the friesians’ black pelts. She stomped her striped hooves into the ground with impatience, eager to meet these strangers that did not yet dwarf her in bodily size.

Taytim raised her head from holding Taika back, knowing her daughter, though barely able to control herself, would stay beside her until she gave the okay. She saw Inka grazing not too far off and called a cheerful greeting to the other mare and trotted over to her, Taika excitedly on her heels.

“Hello!” The black chestnut voiced happily. “My daughter is nearly dying to meet others her age. Would you mind if she played with your’s?”

Taika poked her head around her mother’s chest and gave Inka the biggest smile of innocence she could muster. “Pleeease?”

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Adelheid had looked up from her splashing at the sound of the newcomers, earning her a splash in the face, again. Her attention was caught by strangers and she was unsure what to do. Not scared, but not bold enough yet (at a week old) to approach them she instead looked to her sister. “Who are they?” One velvet ear twitched at a thought. Jetta had always been telling her fantastic stories, she would explain who they were. Or her mother would drive them away if they were trouble. These are facts she knew.

- Adelheid -